THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 17 



After it is strained upon the frame, it should be well painted— the 

 frame should have been painted before. 



Fig. 2 represents a rack upon which the lights are stored when 

 not in use, and may be made to hold any number required ; under- 

 neath which, the mats, frigo-domo, etc., when tightly rolled, are put, 

 and consequently will be always dry. The timber used for the rack 

 must, of course, be much larger scantling than that for the frames. 



CULTIVATION OF THE MELON". 



[HE melon is naturally a more robust plant than its ally, 

 the cucumber, and so far as growing it is concerned, of 

 much easier management ; indeed, plants of the melon 

 might be kept with ease where cucumbers would perish ; 

 and from this it might be inferred that their fruit should 

 be produced at an earlier period than usual, and so it might, was it 

 not for the absence of sufficient sun-heat to give the requisite flavour 

 to the fruit in its ripening process : it could be had in a green state 

 at any time much easier than its relative, but then in winter it 

 would be useless, and hence the reason that we have to wait till 

 April or May for its maturity. On this account it is not advisable 

 to begin the cultivation of the season's crop of melons before the 

 beginning of February ; these will, under good management and a 

 propitious season, produce ripe fruit by the end of April, and a bed 

 made up successively in each month till July, will give a continued 

 supply throughout the summer and autumn. 



Melons are usually grown either in common hotbed frames or 

 pits, artificially heated by means of fermenting material, such as 

 fresh stable dung, or a circulation of hot water ; the latter is far 

 preferable, because of its greater regularity, more certain and 

 manageable, with half the labour than the best of ordinary hotbeds, 

 and its consequent economy, especially for the earliest crops, when 

 everything depends on a steady continued application of the re- 

 quisite amount of heat. The seed of melons will vegetate at a very 

 great age ; plants have been reared from some known to be nineteen 

 years old, and it is generally preferred when saved for three or four 

 years. It should be sown in pots of light rich earth, and shifted 

 singly into small ones as soon as the rough leaves appear. A tem- 

 perature of 65° or 70 Q will grow the young plants in the best 

 manner, and when they have attained two or three true leaves, they 

 will be in a fit condition for final planting. The mould forming the 

 bed intended to receive them should consist of a rich holding loam, 

 lightened just where the plants are to be first stationed with a little 

 leaf-mould, that their young fibres may be encouraged to enter it 

 freely. 



The melon is a gross feeder, aud from the number and size of 

 the leaves on a full-grown plant, it is evident that a plentiful supply 

 of fool will be required, and hence the advantage of employing stiff 

 loam, which absorbs and retains more moisture for a longer period 



January. 2 



